Set up and Configure Wordpress in 23 minutes

Installing Wordpress on
your own domain is only the first step of many.Next you need to set up Wordpress options in the Dashboard. The
language used in the Set Up screens of the Wordpress Dashboard is not intuitive
and the setting up process is tricky the first few times.

Step 1 â€“ Installing
Wordpress

Go to the log in screen
your web hosting company has given you. Look down thescreen until you find the large W Wordpress icon. Double click it
and follow the instructions.

Step 2 â€“ Log in to the
Wordpress Admin area

When you are on the front
page of your website you will see on the right hand sidebar a link to Log In.
Click it and enter your user name and password on the login screen.

Step 3 â€“ Set up Wordpress
theme

You can narrow the search
by clicking a few of the radio buttons or typing a color or some other
criterion in the box.

Browse until you find a
theme you like, it is very easy to change it again at a later date. Click the
Install button under your chosen theme â€“ Click Install Now on the Pop Up window
â€“ Click Activate

Step 4 â€“ Set up Wordpress
Settings (General)

Bottom of LH Sidebar

Type in your Title

Type in your Tagline (Your Sub-title)

Check the box if you want anyone to be able to
register

Set the next User box to 'Subscriber' if you
want people to only READ your blog. Subscribers cannot make posts, though
they can comment. If you want people to be able to write posts on your blog,
then set the default user box to 'Author'

Set the timezone

Choose which date format you prefer. Use
Custom if you want something different l, j f y gives you Friday, 16 July
2010. A lower case letter l (for Lucy) gives you the day followed by a
comma, a space and lower case letter j gives you the numerical date
followed by lower case f gives you the month, followed by lower case y for
the year

Select the day your week starts on

Click Save Changes

Step 5 â€“ Set up Wordpress
Settings (Writing)

Click the two radio buttons next to
'Formatting'

Click the two radio buttons at the bottom on
'Remote Publishing'

Step 6 â€“ Set up Wordpress
Settings (Reading)

Use the default settings if you want your
front page to show recent posts in their entirety

Change the radio buttons to suit your intended
design. A static page is one that you will set up later. This page is
constant and does not change. You might want to check this option if you
want to show a welcome or introductory page rather than having visitors
dive straight into your posts

Save Changes

Step 7 â€“ Set up Wordpress
Settings (Discusssion)

Click the radio buttons you prefer

It is best to check the 'Administrator must
always approve a comment' button. You will get spam comments, checking
this means that you can delete them before they go live on your site

Step 8 â€“ Set up Wordpress
Settings (Media, Privacy,Permalinks)

Step 10 Set up
WordpressPages

Hover over the default 'About' page and click
the Edit button that appears

Delete the text that is there and type in the
text you would like people to read on your About page

Click Update (RH Sidebar)

Click Add New (LH Sidebar)

Type the title of your new page and then the
content in the two boxes. It is a good idea to set up empty Privacy and
Contact pages at this stage, as this will enable you to make a better assessment
of how your blog will look in a few days

Click Publish after each new page added

Step 11 Set up Wordpress
Links

Click on Links (LH Sidebar)

Check all the links that are shown

Click on the drop down arrow until Delete is
shown

Click Apply

Click the Add New button (Top of page)

Type in the details for your new link

Check 'Blogroll'

Click Add Link (RH Sidebar)

Repeat for any other links you want to show on
your website

Step 12 Set up Wordpress
Link Categories

Type in a new Link Category Name (such as
Recommended Sites)

Type in the 'slug' (in this case it would be
recommended_categories)

Hover over Blogroll (RH sidebar)

Click quick edit

Delete the word blogroll and replace it with
anything else, even 'Default'